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When Pigs Fly; Tales of My Lucky Estate Sale Find


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Hey gang,

Long time since I’ve been on the forum; hope all is well with everyone and things are good.

Wanted to share this little story of luck, as there is some watch relevance involved and who better to share with than my pals here?

Picked up this little porcelain figure at a recent estate sale for my daughter; it’s a little piggy bank painted like a dog.

She saw it and immediately thought of our own little doggy, a 12lb Yorkie that coincidentally thinks she’s a pig laugh.png

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We paid a small price for the little piggy and got it home where I started prepping it to put in my daughter’s room for piggy bank use. It was packed/stuffed with tissue paper and when I removed all the tissue, this fell out:

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Ha… Only kidding. I *wish* I were that lucky!

No, no… Rather, this is just my latest build that I’ve been working on; a 1940’s era steel PPCo

As with most of my builds, this one started with a genuine dial with original hard enamel fonts/printings still in tact and in great shape considering (remember, these watches from this time period were not water or element resistant; considering it’s 70-ish years old or so, it’s got some aging, but all very subtle in the overall picture) I managed to pick this dial up for stupid cheap… Less than $100:

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And shortly thereafter I happened upon the correct 12’’’120 movement to go with it:

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From there I had the dimensions of the movement measured and a custom case fabricated. Got the case back the other day and got everything together…

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To finish off, I added a gen Patek gator strap with period correct gen Patek buckle.

Has the appearance and feel of being a much larger watch than it's 36mm size might otherwise suggest:

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Okay, so while I wasn’t lucky enough to happen upon this gem in such a fortunate manner, I do feel fortunate to have managed to see this one through to where it is now smile.png

Thanks for looking!

//ubi

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You got me too, dude, and damn, that would have been one of those crazy finds that can happen :tu: :tu:

Simply stunning build though, 100% pure class :good::drinks: I suspect it wears larger due to the size of the dial relative to the case (as DJs can) but also the white dial itself. What a piece though :wub::good::drinks:

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Beautiful watch Ubi.The flying pig story was pretty convincing too. Before I saw your final photos, i said to myself, that one deserves a really nice Brown Gator, and sure nuff, a couple of photos down, there was my little lizard, all tanned up and made into a nice strap. He gave his little reptile life just to make you smile everytime you strap on the old Patty.

Great watch, great story and a really great guy

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Thank you one and all; your kind words are greatly appreciated smile.png

This watch, like most of my builds has been slow going; the biggest issue is simply trying to track down the parts. I've spent long hours trying to find certain Rolex parts for some of my builds; PP is exceedingly far more difficult! Not a lot of stuff out there, especially when hunting for caliber specific items.

The 12'''120 is the handwind caliber found in most 1940's - early 1950's era time only watches. These can be found in ref 96 (30mm) and 570 (35mm - 36mm; this is what I have built). It's a gorgeous movement... Nicely finished, and the basic concept and design simple. Winding is buttercream smooth smile.png The movement as you see it is, as-is. It does need a cleaning, which will be my next course of action.

The case on my watch is steel; the dial, originally silvered has aged to a pleasing cream tone. The dial is fairly clean for the most part; dark spots around the numeral indicies, but I've decided to leave it be. It adds a lot of character and I think cleaning will take away from that. The fonts, minute chapter and seconds ring are all hard enamel 'champleve'; they are slightly raised and also add a very aesthetically pleasing characteristic. Hands are genuine (though I am not sure about the small seconds hand; it looks a little too basic to my eye). I will probably replace with a gen small sec hand if I can find one.

And for me, the combination of the dark chestnut brown gator strap with the dial/case was the best fit smile.png I usually run these queries past my wife for her opinion, and she felt this was the best pairing smile.png

One more pic... Snapped this morning:

Thanks again!

//ubi

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I've enjoyed a few previews of this piece offline as it progressed. The movement is indeed a beauty and in spectacular condition considering not only its age but also the difficulty in finding one at all. Ubi has once again pushed the envelope. Congrats on completing it and completing ahead of schedule (I think sometime back you were thinking Christmas was a best case scenario). Oh and btw kudos to the little lady on strap selection. It's the perfect choice.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

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I've enjoyed a few previews of this piece offline as it progressed. The movement is indeed a beauty and in spectacular condition considering not only its age but also the difficulty in finding one at all. Ubi has once again pushed the envelope. Congrats on completing it and completing ahead of schedule (I think sometime back you were thinking Christmas was a best case scenario). Oh and btw kudos to the little lady on strap selection. It's the perfect choice.

Thanks, sir. Indeed... This one is definitely ahead of schedule. I was initially thinking Dec. but as it turns out, it's a few months early :)

Certainly no complaining here!

very nice R!!!!!! very nice!

Thank you, Chi ^_^

That is gorgeous, the movement is friggen outstanding! How much is something like that worth? Any way of tidying up the hour marker surrounds? Regardless it looks amazing...I didn't know they did "PP&Co" on old dials! Great work!.

Prices for a genuine steel 570 tend to vary a little depending on factors like condition, dial variation, etc. But they all seem to be right between $35k and $75k. Here is a small sampling of some of the pieces that have hammered at the big auction houses:

http://catalog.antiq...1&auctionid=256

http://catalog.antiq...0&auctionid=144

http://catalog.antiq...1&auctionid=137

http://catalog.antiq...14&auctionid=66

http://catalog.antiq...57&auctionid=55

http://www.christies...bjectID=5257590

Keep in mind that this also represents a large time frame/window in which prices may have increased/decreased due to a number of external influential factors (economic conditions etc).

As for mine... No idea on what mine would be worth... To me, I just value on the sum of it's parts; one can't compare a build like this to a full pedigree genuine even though much of the build is comprised of genuine parts. However, this watch does represent a savings of $30k - $40k to me since I didn't have to pay that much to own one ;) And I suppose there's also the effort involved in sourcing all the stuff to make it what it is. In that regard, it's priceless to me -_-

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